Sodium Acetate?

Question

I was wondering about this reaction:

CH3COONa + H2O = CH3COO-(aq) + Na+(aq)

1)What happens to the water that was added?

2)Why is Na+ a conjugate acid of strong base? The only thing that comes mind is water but isn't water a weak base?

Answer 1

1) Sodium acetate is the salt of the acid acetic acid.  Therefore it can be guessed that the H2O molecules are converted to H3O+ ions once the acid is dissolved into solution.

2) Na+ is the conjugate of a strong acid because CH3COO- readily accepts protons, making it a base.  Therefore the other component in the solution must be an acid.

Answer 2

There shouldn't be any water in that equation as written.  However, acetate (CH3COO-) will "steal" a proton from water to make CH3COOH and leave behind OH-.  In this way, the solution can become basic, though this does not occur to a very large degree (low equilibrium constant - the Kb of acetic acid):

CH3COONa + H2O ------> CH3COO- + Na+ + H2O <------> CH3COOH + Na+ + OH-

Masasune is incorrect about the second part: Na+ is the conjugate acid of the strong base NaOH.  This compound dissociates pretty much completely as follows, so it is a strong base:

NaOH -----> Na+ + OH-

For most acids and bases in aqueous solution, if you add OH- to an acid, you will get its conjugate base (if it has one) - in this case, we add OH- to Na+ to get NaOH, so Na+ must be a conjugate acid.